Prince Ashitaka of the Enishi tribe is a warrior who one day defends his village from a demon but his right arm is infected in the process when he is touched by it. The infection slowly spreads and will spread throughout his body and eventually kill him. The demon turned out to be a boar God that was consumed by hatred, so Ashitaka must leave his village forever and go on a quest to find out the cause of the boar God's hatred with the clue discovered in its body. So we follow Ashitaka on his quest and we meet Princess Mononoke (princess of spirits) whom turns out to be San, a girl raised by the wolf Gods. There we also discover the cause of the boar God's hatred as well as an ongoing dispute between humans and the animal Gods of the forest spirit. Will they settle their dispute and will Ashitaka lift the curse on his right arm?
Princess Mononoke is a Japanese animation (or 'anime' to myself and many others) from Studio Ghibli and directed by Hayao Miyazaki whom also directed many other popular Ghibli titles such as Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service and Laputa: Castle in the Sky, to name a few. The animation style of Princess Mononoke is very similar to the other Miyazaki movies and
doesn't have the classic anime character design whereby the girls have gigantic eyes. It's a more 'serious' animation style although still recognisable as something that originated from Japan by those familiar with the anime genre. It was originally released in Japan in 1997 but released in the UK in 1991. The Japanese name should be Mononoke Hime (Hime being the Japanese word for Princess, pronounced himay) but seems they used the English for Princess for the UK market.
We meet the hero (Ashitaka), the girl (San) and the would-be villain (Lady Eboshi). Ashitaka is the noble one and generally quite wooden (English dubbing doesn't help with this). San is the unusual love interest of Ashitaka and is probably my favourite character due to her unusual circumstance of having been raised by wolves and constantly in denial of being human. Lastly, Lady Eboshi is presented as the villain in the story but the more we learn about her, the more we are able to sympathise for her as it is revealed that she's done a lot of good and has her reasons for some of the evil deeds, which makes it more difficult to hate her. We do, however meet other characters scheming in the background.
Something very interesting with this fantasy story is the creatures that you see throughout the movie, which makes it very unique in comparison to western cartoons. We have giant boars, giant wolves with two tails, forest spirits, etc, which makes the tale more interesting to watch. There aren't as many weird creatures as later titles like Spirited Away but it is interesting to see recognisable animals instead of creatures that are completely made up.
I really like the animation style of Princess Mononoke. The scenery, characters and animals are all very detailed and in my opinion, better than a lot of what Disney has produced in the past. Although it has a PG rating, there is a lot of violence throughout so the rating surprises me a bit as I think a 12 rating would have been a bit more suitable. There's also a lot of blood both from humans and animals although it isn't too gory although there are scenes where people lose their arms and even a few heads come off. One earlier scene shows a man lose his arms and you see the inside of the arm where it is severed showing the flesh and the bone, which is a bit horrid although they didn't animate any blood nor much of a reaction from the man's who's arms are severed, which is sort of weird but make it s a bit more child-friendly. Younger children may find some scenes where they see animals die or animal corpses on the ground upsetting. There are also some human corpses but these are not graphic. There are also scenes where the demons have tentacle-like things (nothing perverted!), which is a bit gross.
As it is a Japanese animation, it will come in Japanese but it has been dubbed in English. The dubbing is very well done and the voices sound very natural unlike most English dubbed animes where the voices are annoying, sound forced or where the voice actresses just sound overly enthusiastic. Even so, I still think the voices suit the characters more with the Japanese audio but maybe with the exception of the female wolf, as it sounds like a man did the voice over in the Japanese version. Either way, either language is fine but if you don't mind reading subtitles or understand Japanese, then the Japanese audio option is also a good option. Gillian Anderson (X-Files) does the voice over for San in the English version. The music sounds like something from an orchestra and is consistent throughout the movie. It blends in with the scenes beautifully. It creates an eerie atmosphere in a lot of scenes and changes pace when appropriate. Fans of classical music will love it. Sound effects are also very well done.
It runs for just over two hours but the story is very engaging so once you sit down to watch it, it doesn't seem long at all. I originally bought it on sale at HMV many years back for £9.99 but is currently available for £6.47 at Play.com unless you want the special editions. On my regular edition DVD, it has a featurette and the theatrical trailer under the bonus materials. I can highly recommend Princess Mononoke. Anime and fantasy fans aside, I can recommend it to adults as well as children, as I think this type of movie can appeal to anyone willing to give it a chance. One can easily get engrossed in the story just as easily as any Disney animated movie but with a more mature story.
Thanks for reading!
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A beautifully realized tale of civilization versus nature, PRINCESS MONONOKE is a true ... more
epic by Japan's master animator Hayao Miyazaki. While protecting his village from a rampaging boar-god, the warrior Ashitaka (Billy Crudup) is cursed with a rapidly ...
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